Effect of Pitch Parameters on Aerodynamic Forces of a Straight-Bladed Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Inclined Pitch Axes

Jia Guo,Timing Qu,Liping Lei

doi:10.3390/app11031033

Abstract

Pitch regulation plays a significant role in improving power performance and achieving output control in wind turbines. The present study focuses on a novel, pitch-regulated vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) with inclined pitch axes. The effect of two pitch parameters (the fold angle and the incline angle) on the instantaneous aerodynamic forces and overall performance of a straight-bladed VAWT under a tip-speed ratio of 4 is investigated using an actuator line model, achieved in ANSYS Fluent software and validated by previous experimental results. The results demonstrate that the fold angle has an apparent influence on the angles of attack and forces of the blades, as well as the power output of the wind turbine. It is helpful to further study the dynamic pitch regulation and adaptable passive pitch regulation of VAWTs. Incline angles away from 90° lead to the asymmetric distribution of aerodynamic forces along the blade span, which results in an expected reduction of loads on the main shaft and the tower of VAWTs.

Highlights

There has been growing interest in vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) because of their low costs of installation and maintenance and no need for a yawing system [1]
Quite a few studies have been done on pitch-regulated VAWTs, and the effect of both static pitch and dynamic pitch on the aerodynamics of VAWTs has been analyzed by numerical simulations and experiments [4,5]
The main objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of the pitch parameters on the aerodynamic forces of a VAWT with inclined pitch axes

Summary

Introduction

There has been growing interest in vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) because of their low costs of installation and maintenance and no need for a yawing system [1]. Wild applications of VAWTs are retarded by their low energy conversion efficiency compared with their horizontal counterparts [2]. Quite a few studies have been done on pitch-regulated VAWTs, and the effect of both static pitch and dynamic pitch on the aerodynamics of VAWTs has been analyzed by numerical simulations and experiments [4,5]. Rezaeiha et al [6] evaluated the effect of the static pitch angle on the angles of attack (AoAs), aerodynamic force components, boundary layer events of the blades, and power coefficients of the wind turbine at length by the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and revealed that the power coefficient with a pitch angle of −2◦ was 6.6% higher than that with a pitch angle of 0◦. Chen and Kuo [7]

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion